#sauron meta

[demonscantgothere]

“Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness [as Morgoth]. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it. He still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and co-ordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 10, Morgoth's Ring

This passage is very crucial to understanding the idea of a repentant Sauron. Tolkien openly admits that Sauron fell from grace, went back to his goodness, and then fell again. The phrase “and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse” points out that Sauron didn't just fall once and stayed there. He attempted to rise above his crimes after the fall of Morgoth, and for an unaddressed reason, he relapsed and came back to them later on.

Tolkien said it first, folks. Relapse is a deterioration after a temporary improvement. You can't relapse without improving first.

[glorfindel-of-imladris]

(tw: death, gore, horror)

I love how downright creepy Sauron is.

He's your neighbourhood psychopathic genius, a skilled sorcerer whose allegiance was realigned once (to his true alignment imo) and then never since waivered.

Unlike Morgoth, who was more straightforward in his execution, Sauron's style is insidious, and in a sense more horrific for how slow and personal his tactics can be. His temper is such that he can play the long game, even play at being weak in order to earn trust or make his enemies complacent, and then next thing you know he has an old friend's corpse up as a war banner, or he has sunk a once great island down the Sea.

He bred the Orcs. Tolkien played with different version of the origin of Orcs, but what I like best is the version where they were corrupted Men, maybe even Elves, and although they were Melkor's idea, it was Sauron who had the ability, patience and tenacity to make the idea come to fruition.

He built cults. Do you know what cults are like? How they draw people in, what they make people believe, what they get people to do? From an outsider looking in it must have looked truly bizarre, but Sauron was able to turn a powerful nation against the Valar and painted Morgoth as the true god. Eru Ilúvatar was denied as a false god, and the Valar made to be liars. There were blood sacrifices, human sacrifices—all for a religion Sauron invented, but was so successful that, once Númenor was gone, Sauron brought the cult with him to Middle-earth.

He was called The Necromancer. What made him garner the title? Who gave it to him, and what had they seen? Surely the Nazgûl were not the first of their kind, not when the Nine were already so well-made. What manner of experimentation had Sauron done in order to make them, and what did the "failures" look like? What knowledge did he use to corrupt and circumvent the Gift of Ilúvatar, which gave Men free will and death, allowing their spirits to transcend Arda? And yet the Nazgûl were unable to die, and as wraiths they also lost their free will, bound to Sauron and the call of the Ring.

He corrupted kings. He corrupted his own kind. Curumo could not have been the only one, and we know Curumo was a powerful Maia in his own right, the leader of the Istari. Sauron played mind games with the best of people, and won. His ability to seduce even the most powerful beings and get them in his service was unparalleled.

Now imagine being a native of Mordor and witnessing the poisoning of the lands. And then an age later, imagine being from one of the villages around Rhovanion and experiencing the slow haunting of Amon Lanc. At least the Eldar could see Sauron and his agents; none of the Men can do so. What defense did the common Man have against such insidious evil? There must only have been odd sensations, a dread settling in, dreams that lure them in before turning into nightmares.

[sauronism]

references from celebrimbor's life ( a memory that disguise itself as a vision ) :

1. maedhros and maglor, portrayed in a depiction most commonly seen of the brothers within fanworks.

2. horses and huan. celebrimbor confront his father before curufin move forward on his hunt for the silmarillis and luthien. huan was present with celegorm.

3. miriel, celebrimbor's great grandmother. she was known for her weaving and needlework.

easter eggs aside; i truly believe in the narrative sense, that the visuals presented here belongs to celebrimbor and suppose to mirror the life he had experienced and the Feast of Reuniting. perhaps a hidden desire within him that he wishes to keep his family under a different light. not as a kinslayer but as a creator and an artists.

[thesummerestsolstice]

Reasons Elrond should absolutely have Necromancy privileges:

He deserves them

We need more kind, good necromancers

What is necromancy but healing taken to its furthest extent?

No seriously the idea of rescuing people from death should be seen as a healing ability; it totally makes sense that Middle-Earth's greatest healer would be able to practice it

It also makes sense that someone with healing knowledge who understands how people work would be able to do necromancy without horrible consequences, as opposed to someone like Sauron who has to brute-force it

I think Elrond deserves as much craft-related hubris as any other Noldor

Great excuse to write Eldritch Peredhel stories

Great excuse to write fix it stories

Alternately, adds another layer of tragedy to the times Elrond couldn't heal someone, despite his power

The vibes are immaculate

It lets Elrond curse out Sauron for being a shitty Necromancer after having one too many cups of wine at Mirkwood's summer solstice festival

"Necromancer?? Please, that bitch probably doesn't even know how the circulatory system works. Oh he can make people live forever? Yeah, I have seen the Nazgul, no he absolutely can't. He pretends to be some prodigy at keeping people alive, like I don't know damn well that he couldn't even handle a cold without resorting to blood sacrifices. He's an even worse Necromancer than he is a smith, and that's saying something."

[rey-jake-therapist]

Whenever I rewatch season 1 now, it breaks my heart a bit to see how relax and happy Sauron was around Galadriel. He smiled, laughed, joked, bickered with Galadriel, he ate and drank... the man had the time of his life!

I mean, you can say it was mostly an act to manipulate Galadriel if you want, but there's no way it was all fake. There were several times when we saw him react to a certain way while neither Galadriel or anyone else was watching. It's even more obvious now that we see him in his Annatar form : every time he fakes an emotion for someone, as soon as their back is turned his face is closed. It's pretty terrifying. When I see some people claim it's exactly the same thing he's doing with Celebrimbor as he did with Galadriel... I have the feeling they missed the point, somehow.

One thing noticeable is that he was constantly looking at Galadriel, whenever she was close to him he couldn't just stop take his eyes off her. Call me delulu all you want, I'm sure her presence explained a lot why he was so relax, happy and shall I say.... Kind? I mean, the one time she went away without him he nearly killed four men 😭When Gal was here, he behaved !

No wonder why he's so grumpy now as Annatar. He has no one around him who's got enough light to balance the darkness that consumed him. The moth lost his favorite flame, and now he's constantly bitter, dead eyed, unable to laugh anymore, and cruel. Someone here noticed that we never see him eat or drink anything. Darkness, unbalanced, has taken over again. For good, we know.

The only time we see a glimpse of his Halbrand self reappear is when he notices the resemblance between Mirdania and Galadriel, and it's again a question of light. It starts as pure flattery from his part to manipulate her, but his smile at his moment seems sincere. More sincere than any other of Annatar's smile, anyway.

Imho, Sauron was dead ass serious when he told Galadriel that with her at his side, he wouldn't be dark. It doesn't matter that he was right or wrong ; I think he really meant it, because he had already felt the influence she had on him.

I believe the last thing he wanted was for Galadriel to become a "dark queen", though it would have happened eventually because he would have influenced her just as much as she would have. He didn't want her to become like him, but to prevent him from getting worse. He wanted her to fix him, basically.

We can thank Charlie Vickers for his stellar acting. What a wonderful portrait of a complex "man" he's giving us here....

[leotanaka]

the celebrimbor/annatar moment immediately after mirdania sees sauron's true form was such a good scene while also being really uncomfortable and unsettling, as most of their scenes in this episode were given the nature of what was happening but this one...

it felt so explicit in what it was saying: that this is an abuser, using weaponised incompetence to lure their victim back into their grasp after they've escaped them and the look on celebrimbor's face said it all.

this moment makes both you, the viewer and celebrimbor question what was really going on in that moment. like, obviously it was deliberate but the thing with manipulators and abusers is that you can never really be sure. even if you are 100% certain, there's always that tiny moment of doubt that makes you question if you're actually right. that makes you question if you can fully trust your own perception of the truth or reality or if you're simply thinking the worst of them when you shouldn't be and that's what this moment kind of does and it does it in quite a scary accurate way.

because it leaves you questioning if sauron deliberately endangered the mirdain in that moment, if he really doesn't know the right or most appropriate way to make the rings or if he knew what could happen if they added more mithril or if he simply made a mistake etc. etc.

and as i said, celebrimbor's face really does say it all...

whether this was intentional or accidental, sauron's got exactly what he wanted. celebrimbor realised in this moment that he has to be involved, one way or another, he has to be involved and contribute in making the nine despite being completely against it because who knows what might happen if he isn't.

[haladriel]

In Charlie Vickers’ auditions for The Rings of Power, he was asked to read excerpts from Shakespeare’s Richard III, and Satan’s speech from Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Now Satan’s soliloquy about his new home and found freedom from ‘celestial light’ is obviously suitable material for a wannabe Sauron, but here are some very brief and select quotes from Richard III:

‘Look how this ring encompasseth thy finger’

‘Since I cannot prove a lover … I am determined to prove a villain’

‘What though I killed her husband and father?’

‘Your beauty was the cause of that effect’

‘I [have] nothing to back my suit at all / But the plain devil and dissembling looks / And yet to win her, all the world to nothing. Ha!’

Rings of Power analysts, writers, artists of all kinds — I can thoroughly recommend.

[halcyonmoments]

I can't stop thinking about this moment where Nenya tumbles to Galadriel's feet (in a sequence of iconic LotR imagery). I wish we had an insight into her thoughts in this moment beyond her expressions.

--------

A ring presented as if in offering, temptation at her feet. A breath in which she bends slowly, almost kneels to retrieve it; a pace that denotes hesitancy, and yet, steadiness, certainty.

As she examines it at her finger tips, is she surprised to find a ring of power in her grasp? Or does she know this to be a moment of fate—a ring bestowed upon her despite her previous refusal? Does she imagine how it might have been presented to her differently? Imagine it offered to her from the hands of another?

"In my heart, I know the three rings are free of his influence."

"But are you?"

As she slips Nenya on her finger—the White Ring, the Ring of Adamant, the Ring of Water—does she first perceive its light, or its absence of darkness? Does she feel the weight of it on her finger in her chest, her throat, like a flood of water in her mouth? Like the weight of the choice she made when she refused the Dark Lord? Does she feel as if she has been here before?

"The tides of fate are flowing. Yours may be going in... or out."

"I cannot let him in again. I... cannot."

"I felt it too."

"He never left, Galadriel."

[deus-sema]

The seeds of Celebrimbor's tragedy and its implications

The hardest part of the episode was,undoubtedly, Annatar's manipulation of Celebrimbor and how he managed to not only isolate Tyelpe from all his people and well wishers but them from him as well. Valandil's death is a close second.

In the beginning, Celebrimbor is shown to be celebrating what is, until now, his greatest achievement and almost everyone he cares for is by his side.

But he senses his new friend Annatar's obvious unhappiness and leaves them all behind to follow him.

I liked how we were shown that Celebrimbor, while easy to trust others, isn't a fool for he can understand very well that Annatar can plant his ideas into the minds of others.

But Annatar is two steps ahead for a reason which is why when he fails to persuade Celebrimbor, he decides to take the reigns of the forge, of which the latter is supposed to be the master and he has been merely welcomed to, into his own hands. As for Celebrimbor, one supposedly harmless lie only leads to another.

Celebrimbor is trapped from all sides by Annatar. Doubting the authenticity of the rings is inconceivable for it would bring to question both his work and his capabilities as a smith. The achievement of his lifetime cannot be faulty so the fault could either be with his chosen partner or with himself. This fear is what Annatar preys on and creates doubt in Celebrimbor's mind about himself. By placing the blame of the faulty Dwarven rings on his shoulders, Sauron exploits Celebrimbor's guilt and makes him succumb to the pressure of creating the Nine.

He only begins to suspect that there is more to Annatar than meets the eye when he interacted with Durin - an outsider who isn't part of the bubble Celebrimbor has been confined to by Annatar and isn't in thrall of him. This is probably why Annatar wanted to meet Durin himself instead of letting Celebrimbor do so for not only does he seek to isolate Eregion geographically by breaking the bridge but also mentally and emotionally by preventing contact with anyone who might burst the bubble. Be it Durin or Narvi, he doesn't want anyone else to have Celebrimbor's ear.

This annoyance is also an indication of the hatred he will eventually go on to harbour for the Dwarves for while the Rings can amplify their greed for gold, their will is untameable and cannot be subdued, much less dominated by Sauron.

Meanwhile, when he realises that Celebrimbor might suspect him, he begins to poison the minds of the people who belong to Celebrimbor's household,have worked by his side and honed their skills for years, against him. He creates an illusion of danger to position himself as a safer option for them. Thus, the person whom Celebrimbor allowed into his home and on whom he showered his hospitality, generosity, trust and friendship, completely invaded his life and has set the wheels in motion for its destruction.

For no fault of his save for his kindness and good intentions, Celebrimbor has been left stranded and is all alone to deal with Annatar's sinister machinations. What's more cruel is that he couldn't even realise when the latter was mocking him on his face for being manipulated.

If this is just the beginning, then as feared, we will be left wrecked by the finale. The sparkle in Celebrimbor's eyes and his passion for his craft has begun to diminish. Throughout the episode, I just wanted to jump into the screen and take poor Tyelpe away from there, away from the impending doom.

Hats off to Charles Edwards for he is going to tear our hearts to shreds with his acting. And this is,indeed, a psychological thriller as the showrunners promised with major stakes.

[lassieposting]

Oh god do y'all want a sad thought I just had

So. About Annatar's line to Durin in 2x03.

Durin IV: My father and I are no longer on speaking terms. You'd sooner get an orc to sit for a sun-bath than get us in the same room together.

Annatar: [...]perhaps bringing your father a means of saving his kingdom might be just the way to earn back his respect."

I'm side-eyeing this *massively*. This isn't just a manipulation. This man is projecting.

Aulë is, essentially, Mairon's father figure - the closest thing a Maia has. And, like Durin III and Durin IV, Aulë and Mairon are no longer on speaking terms: Aulë laid down a painfully obvious rejection during the First Age(?) when he sent Uinen to retrieve Ossë (Ulmo's Maia), but made no attempt to retrieve Mairon (his own). Regardless of whether Aulë intended to disown Mairon or whether it was a bluff to make him come home/an attempt to respect his choices, Mairon understood it as a complete and utter severing of ties and, as a result, made choices based on the belief that he could never go home to Valinor, because Aulë wouldn't have him back or advocate for him, and so he'd have no one to shield him from worse punishment than he'd get from Melkor.

Here, he tells Durin that saving Khazad-Dum will repair the fracture in his relationship with his father. And what did Sauron decide he needed to do after Morgoth fell?

Halbrand: I knew if ever I was to be forgiven, I had to heal everything that I helped ruin...together, we can save this Middle Earth.

He thinks that if he can go home to Valinor having "fixed" Middle Earth and put everything back in order, Aulë will forgive him.

[demonscantgothere]

Okay, let's talk about Sauron. A lot of people want to paint him as a one-dimensional villain, and this is simply not true.

I do believe that Sauron has developed feelings and an attachment towards Galadriel, but at the same time . . . he's been nurtured by evil for an extremely long span of time, millennium after millennium, so the tragedy is his understanding of relationships. The process of a relationship, to Sauron, is based on the experiences beaten into him by Morgoth. It's one of a servant who serves their master, even if that master is vicious, vile, and violent. No matter what, you serve that master and do as you are told . . . and it's an unbreakable bond to Sauron. It's what he understands. It's what has been nurtured in him over the course of almost all his existence. That's a relationship to Sauron.

Once his master, Morgoth, was defeated, Sauron was free to become the master himself. His way of regaining his agency is to be the oppressor now. Now, every relationship that Sauron seeks out is going to mirror his relationship with Morgoth. He is going to expect someone to follow him, do as they are told, and never question him or his will, no matter what. Sauron is going to expect them to serve him, as he served Morgoth. With unfailing loyalty and devotion, no matter how he treats them or acts out against them. They should never stray from his side.

When Galadriel found out his true identity and began to turn away from him, we saw his desperation to regain control over her come out in full force. Anything he had to do to get her back to following him, trusting him, not questioning him or his will, he began to do. Because that is how he understands the process of a relationship. It's not an equal partnership. It's one of a master and a servant. And remember: he's the master now.

Morgoth was vile down to his core. Let me paint a picture for you: Morgoth kidnapped and tortured Elves and Men and Dwarves and everybody, and turned them into a vast sea of slaves, whose bodies he did experiments on, whose bodies he beat, whose bodies he used to breed more slaves, which was just Tolkien's nice way of saying he forced them to rape each other in order to make more slaves. This is how Orcs were created. It's really dark shit, y'all.

Now, pause for a moment. This beast, this vile creature . . . was Sauron's master. For the majority of Sauron's existence. And Sauron learned that listening to this master, following his orders, and doing what he was told earned him riches, protection, power, and position . . . while everyone else who didn't submit was mutilated, tortured, defiled, and raped.

We can sit here and scream about good and evil all day long like it's easy to understand with black and white lines marking the differences between the two, but most evil is just a process born out of the cycle of abuse. At the end of the day, evil deeds are often taught through a cycle of abusive relationships. Once you fall into that cycle, it's very hard to get out of it. It becomes a subconscious way of life. It becomes your understanding of how relationships work.

That's the tragedy behind all of this. Sauron doesn't know how to have a healthy relationship of equal partnership. It's not that he doesn't have feelings and emotions. All beings have feelings and emotions, and Tolkien explicitly described Sauron's intense hate for good people multiple times throughout his works. Why? Because he wanted them to suffer. As he has suffered. Whether that suffering was direct or just horrific deeds he witnessed, it doesn't matter. Even witnessing abuse is severely traumatic, and the cycle of abuse also creates a cycle of hatred.

Sauron is not a one-dimensional villain. Tolkien never actually wrote him that way. His extreme need for control is, in many ways, a byproduct of abuse, which has driven him to commit terrible deeds so he is not the one suffering, but other people are. And he doesn't care. As long as it's not him. He wanted control over everyone and everything, so nobody would ever have control over him ever again.

That's the tragedy. That right there.

[shady-swan-jones]

I’ve been thinking about what they’re doing with Mirdania this season, because her whole look and role feel… deliberately off. I finally figured it out: she’s uncanny valley Galadriel.

(No, she is not Celebrian. The actress has done no press.)

While Galadriel has a presence that is both striking and raw, Mirdania is — for lack of a better word — yassified. (And I’m not talking about the actors' physical appearance, but rather the styling and makeup.) Her curls are too precise, blush perfectly applied, and highlighter on her cheeks gives her an almost angelic glow. Her clothes have no misfolds or wrinkles, and the vibrant green of her dress somehow feels modern. There’s no edge to her — as if she doesn’t quite belong in that world.

In my view, this is an intentional choice by the creators, making her more doll-like, a victim of Sauron’s manipulation who didn’t benefit from it. Sauron’s relationships range from full deception (Mirdania), to deception mixed with admiration (Celebrimbor), to failed partnership and resentment (Adar), to the truest version of himself he can show(Galadriel). Mirdania is meant to represent the innocent, the easily deceived, and in her, we see how Sauron manipulated his way to power. She’s a mirror for the audience — a victim of his rise that facilitated it without even realizing.

[sauronism]

the cruelty of annatar pulling celebrimbor into despair after he sees how happy and comfortable he was during the celebration, sorrounded by friends. he didn't even let celebrimbor savor the moment. he made a face, walked away, and mocked when celebrimbor checked in with him in regards to his speech. annatar's irritation may appear as a strong detestment towards the events and the company within it; but the truth is, he abhorred the strong relations between celebrimbor and the gwaith-i-mirdain. his goal is to isolate him, and in turn he despise the foundation of the community that celebrimbor built. hence the antagonism and discord he created between the members of the guild and the smith. his method is hot and cold. he push himself away when celebrimbor felt the safest, so celebrimbor will rely on annatar's validation emotionally. but when celebrimbor push himself away from the people that are close to him, annatar will become warmer and welcoming as if to reward celebrimbor the isolation. it's a conscious act from annatar.

[multifandumbmeg]

I think an underrated aspect of what has kept Sauron alive for so long is his patience. Utilizing the Rings of Power canon here, we see him survive time and again because he waits for the opportunity. Biding his time in the cave, building up to bigger creatures. Waiting for the cart.

When the boat is attacked, he tells everyone on the raft to be still, and they fail. But then he is directly faced with the creature himself, it stares him down, and with no information, he waits. He choses not to fight or act, unlike everyone else who has been panicking... And the creature swims away toward more obvious targets.

Every time Galadriel holds a knife to his throat, he waits. He speaks calmly, uses his mind to sway her.

He faced death countless times, lived untold years. If there is one thing he is willing to do, it is wait. He is fundamentally an opportunist, but I don't think he's usually a short-sighted one. He's willing to wait for a good opportunity, and sacrifice a good opportunity for a great one. He could have Adar, and lord knows he wanted to. But he would have lost Galadriel immediately. Whether this was because she was more useful to him than revenge, or because he really was trying out being that person, a whole new opportunity that had opened up, he once again waited. And lived a little longer because of it.

[rey-jake-therapist]

Ok, here am I again posting another TROP/Haladriel meta... Feel free to mute me if you can't take it anymore, these are gonna be two long weeks as there are still two episodes left...

We're having a lot of discussions about what we'll get to see in Episode 8 (maybe even a bit in episode 7??), and it's really great and exciting to speculate about what will happen when our two love birds mortal enemies finally meet again.

It seems to be the general consensus that Sauron will try again to convince her to be his queen. Now I may be the dissonant voice, but I personnally don't think it will be that straightforward.

Charlie said several times that Sauron was pissed that Galadriel rejected him, but that it wasn't the end of the world, for him. Meaning: he totally believes he can make it without her.

To the Nerdist, he said :

"Speaking of your old screenmate, Sauron asked Galadriel to be his queenOpens in a new tab at the end of season one of The Rings of Power. How much, if at all, does he still want that by this point? And does he think it’s a possibility? Vickers: I think he probably does think it’s still a possibility because he has this hubris and this self-love. He thinks he’s really cool, and he thinks, “Well, she rejected me once, but next time I come back for her, she won’t reject me again because I’ll be so powerful she won’t be able to.” But I don’t think he necessarily wants that. I think his initial proposal to her was to join him, and they could be king and queen of Middle-earth, but really, he would’ve been king, and she would’ve been his righthand woman. Any kind of dreams he has involve her being number two and him being number one."

(I would love to see him try to submit Galadriel to his will, btw. I mean, c'mon man)

To Collider, he said,

"His getting rejected definitely leaves him with this sour taste in his mouth, and he goes away thinking, “I can make this right.” Whatever that means to him. That's one of his throughlines in terms of his motivation or goals for this second season is how much he's driven and how much this relationship gives him a sense of purpose."

And to Schön:

That connection will endure as long as the show endures because although they might not be together in proximity when we pick it up, he’s pissed off that she has turned his pitch down [laughter]. That drives him to think, I can make her join me, or I’ll make her pay for this.

Here, there's also an interview he gave for Total Films, where he reveals that there's a "huge amount of urgency in each of them trying to obtain what they want in that situation": https://x.com/totalfilm/status/1830244276539654595

I'm sure I've read an interview where Charlie said that Sauron would probably want to taunt Galadriel with what they could have done together had she said yes. Edit : found it! Interview for TV Insider.

Second to his lust for more rings is Sauron’s desire to get the Elven rings back. “While he didn’t directly touch them, which is a big thing this season, [Galadriel] has this ring that he put all this effort into, and he wants that back,” Vickers admits. Sauron “covets” these jewels, “and particularly hers,” he explains, “because he knows what they represented when he was making them.” Sauron feels “taunted” and “pissed off” that Galadriel rejected him. That makes getting her ring back personal, but Vickers insists that “he’s past ruling with her.” That won’t stop him from showing her “what could have been, what you could have had,” Vickers teases.

Of course Charlie can't give much away. But so far, it matches with what we saw in season 2 : he's in Eregion, forging his rings of power with Celebrimbor, he's visibly happy (just kidding, the man looks exhausted and depressed), but sometimes he can't help but think of Galadriel.

I love how the experience is completely different for him, from it is for Galadriel: while she had a bittersweet flashback of her and Halbrand in the Southlands, he gets lost in the contemplation of Mirdania's hair because she reminds her of Galadriel, and manifests images in his mind palace that also remind him of her (there are several posts about all this on Tumblr, including one of mine... I won't enter into the details again).

It would be very OOC of Sauron to display an outright nostalgia for the time he spent with Galadriel as Halbrand, imho, even if it was only for the audience to see. He's not supposed to be sad and nostalgic, but pissed at her for rejecting him, and determined to move on and to obtain what he wants without her in the picture. He's probably annoyed af to see his thoughts shifting towards Galadriel while he's in the middle of something very important. He's in his "the fuck with her" phase of the breakup, which pretty much matches what Charlie said. In his hubris, he believes that once he has his rings, he will be so powerful that Galadriel will have no other choice than joining him. She hurt his pride, so now he wants to relish the sight of her submission to him.

Regarding the mind palace scene, precisely the one where the guy tells the Galadriel look alike he wrote a poem : it probably remained unnoticed by most viewers, but I think it's very significant that this scene arrived at THIS moment. Let me explain:

To convince Celebrimbor, Sauron first assures him that when the story of this age is written, the Silmarils will be "no more than a whisper". Of course it's meant to motivate Celebrimbor who always wanted to create something that would be remembered, like the Silmarils. But it can be interpreted as a personal goal for Sauron as well :

1) Morgoth found the Silmarils so beautiful that for weeks, "he could do nothing but stare into their depth".

2) Fëanor admired Galadriel's hair so much it gave him the idea of imprisoning and blending the light of the Trees, and three times requested a tress of hers (she always said 'no').

The two people he loved/admired but hurt him the most are connected to the Silmarils in a way, so he could see the creation of something "more precious" as a personal challenge. After he promises Celebrimbor that his rings of power will be "deemed the most precious creations in all Middle-Earth", and Celebrimbor returns to his workshop, his attention is caught by the sight of a couple. The man (whose face remains unseen, because he's a just a self-insert) tells the Galadriel look alike :

"I've written a poem, but I fear your beauty still overshadows anything I could possibly write."

Of course we joked about Sauron's pathetic attempt at poetry (it's terrible lol), but imho there was a deeper meaning to this scene. I think it was his subconscious manifesting what he already knows deep inside of him : that without Galadriel's light, there will ALWAYS be something missing. That what he told Celebrimbor was a lie, no matter how much Sauron wants it to be the truth. The Rings of power are his poem, but Galadriel's beauty/light will always overshadow it.

Hence why it's pretty much granted that he will try to "get Galadriel back". He'll show her how powerful he is now that he has the Nine rings, and his proposal will probably not be as charming as it was the first time. I think we should prepare ourselves to a lot of gaslighting and threatening from his part (he's still pissed off, guys). He'll surely tell her that Eregion is burning because she refused him, that kind of thing. He will definitely use her memories of Halbrand (it's pretty much confirmed by the presence of Halbrand's theme within The Temptation music, and maybe Galadriel's vision of Halbrand enters that scheme too), but will it be to show her what they could have had if she had said yes the first time, or what they could still be? It remains to be seen.

We probably shouldn't forget that in his mind, it happens like this: "she joins me, or I'm making pay for it".... It should be pretty intense.

Then we've got what Charlotte Brändström revealed about Sauron (bless her heart) :

"I think Sauron even really loves Galadriel and you will see that at the very end”

There are already several threads discussing how Sauron will show his love for Galadriel... Will he spare her? Save her in one way or another? Heal her because she's hurt? Prove her in some way that what he said he felt as Halbrand was real? Something entirely different? Anyway, it will be something that can't be confused with manipulation.

There, I said my piece. Why isn't it next Thursday yet?

[silmarillisms]

A Casual Reminder: Sauron Was Powerful

I'm not really sure why, but I've seen a lot of "Sauron was so pathetic, forever in Morgoth's shadow, what a baby" posts lately. And I do get it, I love the wet meow meow too.

But for all intents and purposes, Sauron does not fit the wet meow meow role. We are actually blatantly told that Sauron was greater in the Second Age than Morgoth was at his fall.

Sauron was ‘greater’, effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First. Why? Because, though he was far smaller by natural stature, he had not yet fallen so low. Eventually he also squandered his power (of being) in the endeavour to gain control of others. But he was not obliged to expend so much of himself. To gain domination over Arda, Morgoth had let most of his being pass into the physical constituents of the Earth – hence all things that were born on Earth and lived on and by it, beasts or plants or incarnate spirits, were liable to be ‘stained’. Morgoth at the time of the War of the Jewels had become permanently ‘incarnate’: for this reason he was afraid, and waged the war almost entirely by means of devices, or of subordinates and dominated creatures. - Morgoth's Ring: Notes on Motives in the Silmarillion

The argument could be made that Sauron being greater at his height than Morgoth was at his fall doesn't mean much, but I would actually posit that it does, and for multiple reasons. Morgoth was the greatest of the Valar. Even in his decline, it took the whole host of the Valar invading from Aman and sinking Beleriand to defeat the armies that Morgoth had assembled - as well as Morgoth himself. It is no small feat for a Maia to amass that sort of power.

Let's take a look at the next paragraphs from the same essay in Morgoth's Ring:

Sauron, however, inherited the corruption of Arda, and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings; for it was the creatures of earth, in their minds and wills, that he desired to dominate. In this way Sauron was also wiser than Melkor-Morgoth. Sauron was not a beginner of discord; and he probably knew more of the Music than did Melkor, whose mind had always been filled with his own plans and devices, and gave little attention to other things. The time of Melkor's greatest power, therefore, was in the physical beginnings of the World; a vast demiurgic lust for power and the achievement of his own will and designs, on a great scale. And later after things had become more stable, Melkor was more interested in and capable of dealing with a volcanic eruption, for example, than with (say) a tree. It is indeed probable that he was simply unaware of the minor or more delicate productions of Yavanna, such as small flowers. Thus, as Morgoth, when Melkor was confronted by the existence of other inhabitants of Arda, with other wills and intelligences, he was enraged by the mere fact of their existence, and his only notion of dealing with them was by physical force, or the fear of it. His sole ultimate object was their destruction. - Morgoth's Ring: Notes on Motives in the Silmarillion

This is easily my favorite comparison between them. Sauron became Morgoth's right hand because, although Morgoth had power and ambition in spades, he lacked the mind for strategy that Sauron possessed. Sauron's strength lies in his clever plans, his manipulations, his deceptions. Just as it would have been for anyone else who wore it, the One Ring became Sauron's downfall because it blinded him to the same little things that Morgoth tended to ignore. Sauron lost because he became like Morgoth, not because he was lesser than Morgoth in might.

I'll leave off with a last quote from NoMitS.

Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it. He still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.) - Morgoth's Ring: Notes on Motives in the Silmarillion

Sue me. I'm a filthy Angbanger at heart.

Also, here's all of NoMitS if anyone wants to read it.